Dave Orrick: Can Lessard-Sams and Kahn mend fences?

Gov. Mark Dayton has proven to outdoors advocates he's a man of his word.

And we should read his words carefully.

On Thursday, Dayton vetoed two contentious parts of the Legacy Amendment spending bill: $6.3 million for metro parks and $3 million for boat inspections of aquatic invasive species. Neither initiative was endorsed by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, the citizen-dominated group that was established to vet and recommend about $100 million a year in Legacy funding for the outdoors.

A who's who of fishing and hunting groups criticized the inclusion of the initiatives as subverting the council and setting a precedent for those seeking funds to lobby legislators directly.

Dayton, who had pledged to veto any attempt to "usurp" the authority of the Lessard-Sams Council, agreed. He explained his reasoning in a letter to House Speaker Paul Thissen, and those words will undoubtedly be held up by sporting groups with the weight of a landmark court decision.

And he criticized Rep. Phyllis Kahn, although not quite by name.

Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, chairs the House Legacy Committee and spearheaded the effort to alter the council's recommendations.

Dayton's words: "Nevertheless, my line-item vetoes do not reflect a lack of support for the two projects; rather they underscore my conviction that the House Legacy Committee must work with its citizen councils, not against them. ...

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I believe it is imperative that the leadership of the House Legacy Committee repair its relations with the Lessard-Sams Council and the many sportsmen, sportswomen, outdoor recreation enthusiasts, hunters, anglers and everyone else committed to the enhancement of our state's priceless outdoor heritage."

That "leadership of the House Legacy Committee," Kahn knows, is her.

"I recognize this as a message to me to start behaving," Kahn said Thursday. But she's not one to kowtow. "One of the things that's so irritating about that is that usually, in negotiations, a call for cooperation is a call for cooperation on both parties," she said.

Yet that call is there. Dayton's words: "I will ask the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council to reconsider these two projects when it assembles its next funding recommendations."

And, in the bill Dayton did sign: The Lessard-Sams Council, the House and Senate "shall examine transitioning to a biennial recommendation process beginning with fiscal year 2016." A biennial funding cycle -- appropriating money every two years -- is one of Kahn's goals that she failed to achieve this year.

Can we expect Kahn and the Lessard-Sams Council to toast marshmallows and sing "Kumbaya" in deer camp this fall? Doubtful.

But war has casualties, and any attempt by the council to rebuff Dayton's request to consider metro habitat plans might be seen as an act of war.

Dayton has used his ultimate weapon: his veto pen. Kahn hasn't used hers. Here it is:

No governor, nor senator, can introduce legislation in the House. And no Legacy spending can be passed by the House without going through the Legacy Committee -- at least not without some high-end parliamentary judo. And nothing can make it out of the Legacy Committee without the chair agreeing to a vote. That's how it works.

And next year, no part of the Legacy funds are up for appropriation, save one: the Outdoor Heritage Fund. Parks and Trails, Clean Water, Arts and Cultural Heritage ... they're all funded biennially.

I'm not suggesting that Thissen, in an election year, would allow one lawmaker to hold up $100 million of taxpayer funds, that taxpayers voted to be taxed on, so the money could be spent. Nor am I saying Kahn is planning to do so -- she didn't tell me that. But it's leverage.

And I think Dayton knows it. Which is why his words call for a truce.

The stakes? Dayton's words: "Otherwise, I have serious doubts that a Legacy Bill can be enacted in future legislative sessions."